The leaders of the global health community have sought to quell the hysteria surrounding the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. On 14 August 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement confirming that the risk of transmission of Ebola during air travel is low. “Unlike infections such as influenza or tuberculosis, Ebola is not airborne,” the Director of the WHO’s Global Capacity Alert and Response Unit, Dr. Isabelle Nuttall explained in the statement.

The Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr Thomas Frieden, issued a similar statement while testifying about Ebola before Congress on 7 August 2014. He commented that “we [the CDC] do not view Ebola as a significant danger to the United States because it is not transmitted easily, does not spread from people who are not ill, and because cultural norms that contribute to the spread of the disease in Africa – such as burial customs – are not a factor in the United States.”

In an op-ed published in the New York Times last April, David Quammen, author of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, asserted that “Ebola in Guinea is not the Next Big One, an incipient pandemic destined to circle the world, as some anxious observers imagine.” Rather than feeding our fears, he wrote, we should sympathize with those affected by the outbreak and send help.

Ebola may not post a threat to the health or finances of those living outside the region, but this outbreak has provided a clear example that maintaining and protecting global health requires commitment and support from the international community.